Letters: 'Doonesbury' debate

Usually censorship arises out of fear, and lives and operates in the dark with propaganda hand in hand. I wonder how much of both of these are a part of your daily journalism practices. In your effort to protect your readers you have exposed your lack of integrity. If I see things in your paper that I don’t wish to read, I simply pass over them. That’s my choice and should be left to me. You might want to turn on some lights and shine them into your publication practices. – Cedar Kingsland, Lakeside

What’s next? Are you going to censor the news because you don’t think it’s “appropriate” for your readers? – Ed Zitter, Lakeside

Sensitivity or censorship? Rush Limbaugh can “spill his swill,” but Trudeau’s cartoon panels do not rise to the standard of publishing purity of the U-T San Diego. Move the panels to the editorial page for the grown-ups and stop being childish. – Byron E. Ellsworth, Santee

Unbelievable – today you don’t run “Doonesbury” yet you continue to run the tripe that is “Mary Worth,” which is currently about a woman with no morals, who lies about a co-worker and gets him fired just to get his job. She seems much more hateful and disgusting than a strip about a woman getting a medical procedure that has been mandated by law, skewed and messed-up though that law may be. “Doonesbury’s” character is law-abiding while “Mary Worth’s” character is lawless. Who should be judging what strip is “appropriate for our comic pages”? – Susan Virgilio, University Heights

I must protest your censorship of this week’s “Doonesbury” cartoons. A newspaper’s responsibility is to report the news and multiple sides to any issue of public interest. Whether or not I support a woman’s right to choose, or consider myself pro-life, I am interested in seeing how others view this and other issues, either in an editorial or a cartoon.

“Doonesbury” is entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. This week’s cartoons seem to criticize a conservative governor’s attempt to impose his views on women and society. This makes him look hypocritical since he is supposedly in favor of smaller government with less intrusion on our personal freedoms. This exposes the hypocrisy of the conservative establishment who only support their views and denigrate anyone and any group with a different point of view.

Present opposing cartoons or articles rather than censoring ones with which you disagree. Given the U-T’s ownership however, this shouldn’t be a surprise. – Gregory Hirsch, San Marcos

Your newspaper can thank our cherished American freedom of speech for your ability to publish, yet you censor a cartoon (“Doonesbury”) which is reflecting a real-life situation in a legislature back East. This is exactly the sort of hypocrisy that “Doonesbury” often lampoons. – Maritha Pottenger, San Diego

Censorship is alive and well at the U-T. If you felt “Doonesbury” was too “political” or “controversial,” the journalistically responsible thing to do would have been to run it on the editorial page instead of in its usual space on the comics page. But you chose to censor it, which makes me wonder how often your news articles are being censored. – Jean Samuels, North Park